THE STRIFE OF THE TONGUES

THE STRIFE OF THE TONGUES
Dr. D. K. Olukoya


Psalm 31: 20 : “Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.”

The topic of our message this week is taken from the foregoing. I want you to keep the passage in your spirit as we go to Psalm 141: 3 where the Psalmist prayed a very important prayer point: “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.”

We have read two passages; one talks about God having to hide people in His pavilion because of the strife of tongues. The second talks about setting a watch over our mouths and the Lord keeping the door of our lips.

There is a very dangerous door that has caused destruction in our present world. The strange thing about that door is that it has no lock, and many people could have been a lot better if they did not possess this door. In His wisdom, the Almighty God has designed the human head to have seven openings: two nostrils, two ears, two eyes and only one mouth. God, in His mighty wisdom, restricted the seventh opening to one. That already, is a message. That all other openings are in duplicate but this particular one, which is about a few inches below the nose, is only one, means that God wants you to see double, hear double, smell double but speak once. This single opening has caused us more troubles than the other six put together.

Let us look at a few Scriptures. Psalm 34: 11–13: “Come ye children hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he who desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good. Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.”

The fear of the Lord starts from your tongue. Judicious use of the tongue enables you to see good days. Likewise if you misuse your tongue, you will see evil days. Proverbs 13: 3 says, “He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life, but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.” Proverbs 21: 23 says, “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from troubles.” Proverbs 15: 14 says, “The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge, but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.” Proverbs 8: 21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”

POWER OF THE WORD

The word is very powerful. There is a powerful secret behind the nature of the word which men over the ages have failed to realize. Words do not just come ordinarily, they are backed up by the personality that is speaking. It means that the words that we speak have spirit beings behind them. They do not exist in isolation. They carry power. When the devil came to Adam and Eve, all he did was to speak words, project his lying nature into the words and the words he spoke to them in the Garden of Eden caused their destruction. Words are far more than the arrangement of letters and alphabets. They are like containers, they may be filled with anger, malice, envy, curses, or destruction. What I am saying is this, your life today is mainly a result of what you said about yourself yesterday, and the totality of what you are now is a combination of what you have been saying and thinking about your life.

You need to seize this opportunity to reverse all the evil words you have said about your own life. Your words will